Sheet feeding and registering device



April 29,1941. G. SPIESS 2,240,424

SHEET FEEDING AND'REGISTERING DEVICE Filed May 17, 19 39 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A ril 29, 1941. G, sPugss 2,240,424

SHEET FEEDING AND REGISTERING DEVICE Filed May 17, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 29, 1941 2,240,424 SHEET FEEDING AND REGISTERING DEVICE Georg Spiess, Leipzig, Germany Application May 17, 1939, Serial No. 274,138

a In Germany May 21, 1938 4 Claims.

feeding sheets into and within a folding,-prlnt-' ing or other sheet-working machine are furnished over their whole length with a plurality of successively arranged fixedly mounted and rotating inclined or.oblique rollers which make the forwarding or transverse feed table extraordinarily heavy and, with the high speeds of rotation of the inclined rollers due to the high capacity, for example, of modern buckling folding machines, are very noisy and are liable to suffer considerable wear. On each of the numerous inclined rollers, a ball usually bears, which ball serves as a pressure member. All these balls, the weight of which has to be regulated according to the quality of the paper of the sheet which wastes a considerable amount of time, are arranged loosely in a casing of only small spatialheight connected to the registering guide rail of the forwarding or transverse feed table over its whole length at a slight distance therefrom. After the sheet has been brought out of the influence of the forwarding rollers, for example, of a forwarding device and on to the feed or forwarding table, it is, owing to the inclined or oblique drive, moved with its forward edge or comer, considered in the direction of feed, against the registering guide'and beneath the said casing and balls thereof; it is, however, brought to a standstill for a short time and, furthermore, owing to the said front edge or corner rising up at the registering guide and bending upwardly or down--' wardly, its further feeding is checked or arrested whereby the'sheet, instead of being guided parallel to the registering guide, runs obliquely along it and into the working machine with the T result that faulty folds occur.

' The invention relates to apparatus for the rhythmic or non-rhythmic forwarding or trans-, verse feeding of single or overlapped or folded sheets into and/or within a folding,-prlnting or other sheet-working. machine which is provided with an inclined or oblique drive furnished with a pressure means. an entirely novel construction of forwarding and/or transverse feed table of the greatest simplicity and of light weight is obtained which reliably and certainly ensures the accurate registration and forwarding of sheets to the registering guide arranged on the one or other or on both register sides of the table. v

The invention consists essentially in a rotating inclined or oblique drive of any desired kind carried transversely to the forwarding direction of the sheets or adjustable as desired in one or other transverse direction and having any suitable pressure members bearing thereon at any position thereof for the purpose of registering and forwarding a sheet to aregistering guide which can be arranged on one or on both sides of the forwarding or transverse feed device such that the sheet, in consequence of a turning action imparted to it by the inclined or oblique drive and pressure members, is first laid with the rear corner of its registering edge, considered in the direction of feed, or with its whole registering edge on the registering guide. This results in that, for example, in a forwarding device furnished with forwarding bands, these bands move at a somewhat lower forwarding speed than the inclined or oblique drive member or membersr The sheet is moved rectilinearly' by the forwarding bands so as then, under the influence of the inclined or oblique drive and pressure members, to receive immediately, in consequence of the drawing action of the said inclined drive, aturning movement such that the rear corner of the registering edge thereof is first brought into contact with the registering guide and thereafter the whole edge is brought parallel to the said guide. The forwarding speed of the forwarding bands can also, if desired, be so related to the speed of rotation of the inclined drive, that the sheet to be fed arrives with its whole registering edge in the parallel position with respect to the registering guide. 7

The inclined or oblique drive may consist of a roller arranged transversely and obliquely to the sheet forwarding direction, a roller stub, a roller set, an endless inclined band drive or the like and the'pressure members may consist of balls, .rollers, brush wheels or the like which can also, if desired be exchangeable;

In accordance with the invention, in front of the inclined or oblique drive with pressure member bearing thereon, there can be arranged in the direction of feed a further inclined or ob- By means of the invention,

lique drive or forwarding drive of any kind arranged as desired inthe one or other direction transversely to the direction of feed, which further inclined drive is provided with one or more pressure members bearing on it with the same pressure as, or a. different pressure from, that of the pressure member of the first inclined or oblique drive. In this way, the registration of the sheet to be fed, which is performed by the first drive, is assisted and/r made certain. The rear registering-edge corner of the sheet guided in the feeding direction first against the registering guide, can also be maintained in its position on the registering guide by one or more pressure members co-operating with an oblique drive or forwarding .drive of any desired kind. If the inclined or oblique drive following the first inclined or oblique drive has a greater speed of rotation than the former and, consequently, the second oblique drive exerts a still greater pulling action compared with the first oblique drive, then, by suitable control of the pulling effects of these two or more inclinedor oblique drives, a positioning of the sheet on the registering guide, either firstly with the rear corner of its registering edge or with its registering edge in parallel positioning, can be attained as desired.

This optional positioning of the sheet results more or less quickly according to the inclined or oblique position of the oblique drive and the other conditions. a

. Furthermore, the pressure member or members of the inclined or oblique drive following on the first inclined or oblique drive in the direction of feed can bear on the latter with any desired smaller pressure than the pressure members on the first oblique drive so that the turning action thereof on the sheets to be registered against the registering uide can beregulated as desired. The successive inclined or oblique drives with pressure members bearing thereon can, moreover, act in such a manner that the sheet to be fed transversely is guided in a curved movement into the transverse feeding direction before it comes into contact with the registering guide.

For the purpose of differentiating the transverse feeding speed. of the sheets arriving on the transverse feed table either simultaneously or in close sequence or overlapped, the pressure members of the inclined or oblique drives can act,-in accordance with the invention. either on the front oblique drives, considered in thetransverse feed direction, only either singly or in numbers, or act with a greater pressure on these oblique drives. The forwarding drives carried transversely to the transverse feeding direction of the sheets, inclined according to different directions or also perpendicular to the transverse feed direction, and provided with one or more pressure members acting singly or together on each thereof can, moreover, be so arranged that the sheets are fed as desired, on a registering guide or on registering guides arranged on both sides of the transverse feed device in one or 'in the opposite direction. Moreover, adjacent forwarding drives, arranged in different angular positions transversely to the transverse feeding direction of the sheets, can be arranged at such a distance from one another that the smallest sized sheet to be fed will lie on both of them, whereby, in accordance with the desired direction of feed, the rotating inclined drive or drives corresponding thereto are provided with one or more pressure members. The forwarding drive or drives, not required for the desired direction of feed of the sheet, can, moreover, be stopped.

In order to be able to adjust the inclined drives as desired obliquely to the forwarding di- 5 rection of the sheet, the latter are, according to the invention. carried at one end in a suitable pivot bearing which is constructed as a universal joint for the purpose of enabling the drive to be swung upwardly. In this way, the inclined or oblique drive can be brought into the inclined position most favourable for a rapid registration of the sheets to be fed and the forwarding speed of the sheets of any quality can be increased to v the greatest possible extent under all circumstances whilst ensuring proper registration and damage-free movement or travel.

Each pressure member is preferably adjustable in the direction of feed of the sheets and/or in the actual direction of the inclined or oblique members, all or only a part thereof may be made adjustable. v

In order to render the interior of the sheetworking machine, for example, a buckling folding machine, accessible, the guide path, for the sheets to be registered and forwarded, arranged in the direction of feed of the sheets in front of and behind the oblique drive, is, in accordance with the invention, made swingable. This accessibility can be still further increased in that the sheet feeding device, arranged in the direction of feed in front of one or more inclined or oblique drives or only the front part thereof, can

a be tipped-up in any suitable manner, for example, by pivoting on hinges. For this purpose, the inclined or oblique drive, arranged either singly or as a plurality of drives together'with its driving mechanism, advantageously forms a part of the working machine, for example, a folding mechanism. The invention offers the further advantage that any suitable forwarding device can be connected to the transverse feed device which is removable from the former and placeable as desired at one or other end of the transverse feed device or of any device connected to the latter. This feed device can have any desired purpose. For example, onthe use of the invention on a three-fold folding machine, a twice-folded sheet can be delivered at one end on to the feeding device or at the opposite end -of the transverse feeding device can receive, by means of an adjacent folding mechanism, a third foldand then the thrice-folded sheet can be delivered on to the forwarding device placed on the folding mechanism end of the transverse feeding device.

Formerly it was necessary to remove the transverse feed table in order to use the delivery device 0 lying thereunder and to deliver the folded sheets.

This considerable and time-wasting work is unnecessary by the use of this invention.

In order that the invention may be fully understood, I shall now describe some embodiments thereof by way of example by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig.1 is a sectional view on the line 1-1 of Fig. 2, of a forwarding device combined with a sixfold buckling folding machine,

Fig. 2 is a plan view thereof, and

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a transverse feed device arranged between a paralleland a cross-folder, the carriers for the pressure members being indicated.

TF Fig. 4 is a plan view of a three-fold folding drive. In the case of a plurality of pressure frame.

mechanism with the carriers for the pressure members again omitted.

Referring first to Figures land 2, the sheets i. withdrawn from a pile, arrive in a known man- 'ner from a table plate 2 in the forwarding direction ,A on to a forwarding device 3 with forwarding bands 5 tensioned over positively rotated rollers 4 and a grid 1 provided with pressure rolls 3 and swingable upwardly around a fixed pivot 6. To the forwarding device'3 is connected a guide path 8 for the front sheet I, considered in the feeding direction, which is freed from the pressure rolls 3, which path is interrupted by a space which is bridged by members l0 connecting the two individual parts of the path 3 and which is provided on both sides of the machine frame II with strips i2 by which it is swingably carried on the shaft of the left-hand roller 4 in Fig. 1, it being supported in the position indicated in the drawing on a stationary support or bearing 13.

In the space of the guide or conveyor path 9 islocated aroller f4,.the shaft ii of which, provided at one end with a bevel wheel I5, is carried in a forked frame I! (Fig. 2) through which passes a shaft l3 carrying a driving pinion i8 meshing with the bevel wheel l5. This shaft is, which is driven through a Cardan joint from a bevel wheel 20, is carried in bearings 2| formed in a plate 22. This plate is .rotated by means of a pin 23 in a hole formed in av bearing plate 24 located,thereunder and screwed to the machine The bearing'constructed as a universal joint allows the roller T4 to be driven through the bevel wheels i5, I3, 20 and, moreover, en-

. ables the roller to take up any desired'inclined or oblique position around the pin 23 transversely to the direction of forwarding of the sheets. The roller i4 is fixed in the adjusted inclined or oblique position by means of a bearing 26 for its shaft l6 which is displaceable in a stationary arc-shaped guide slot 25. Moreover, the roller I4 can be swung upwardly around the shaft l9. On the forked frame H, on the one hand, and the bearing 26, on the other hand, is secured a holder or carrier 21 arranged above the roller i4 and provided with a guide plate 28, which holder or carrier 21 serves as a cage for a, if desired, exchangeable ball 21 pressing on the roller i4 from which cage the ball 23, acting as a pressure member for the sheet [moving between it and the roller i4, cannot fall out on the swinging up of the roller l4 around the shaft l9. To the conveyor path 31s connected 9. buckling folding machine with known folding rollers 30and fold pockets 3i for producing six parallel folds. The rollers 30 are mutually driven by spur wheels 32 and from the shaft of the last but one roller 33 of the folder is driven the inclined drive roller i4 through the medeium .of the bevel wheel '33. the bevel wheel 20 and the bevel wheels i8, 15. On the forwarding device is, moreover, arranged a known, preferably adjustable, registering guide 34 for registering and guiding the sheet. cording to-the quality of the sheet and the other conditions, theinclined or oblique drive I4, 29 is adjusted and secured in the particular angular position with respect to the direction of sheet feed. The sheet I, moving with its front part between the inclined or oblique drive I4, 29, re-

ceives a turning movement in the direction of the arrow C (Fig. 2) such that first the rear corner of its registering edge, and thereupon its whole registering edge, is moved into contact with the registering guide' 34 and is thus forwarded along cessible if the inclined or oblique drive i 4, 23 isthe latter in the registered position into the folding mechanism 33, 3|. The folder is easily acswung upwardly around the shaft i3 into the position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1 and then the conveyor path 9 is tipped upwardly around the shaft of the forwarding band roller 4, shown on the left of Fig. 1.

In thetransverse forwarding device 33, shown in Fig. 3, between the parallel folding mechanism ,3lipand the cross folding mechanism 31, a

ball 39, acting as a pressure member, bears on one of the stationarily mounted inclined rollers 33, which ball 33 is easily rotatably carried in a holder or cage 42, its movement being limited by a spring 43 arranged at a definite distance above it. In the transverse forwarding direction B, there is arranged before the inclined or oblique drive 38, 39 a second inclined or oblique drive formed of a further inclined roller 33' and a brush wheeel 39' lying loosely or with controllable pressure thereon and rotatably carried in a holder or carrier 44, which wheel serves as a pressure member, and in front of the inclined or oblique drive 38, 39 is arranged a further inclined drive consisting of an inclined roller 33" with two balls 39" pressing on it and serving as pressure members. The pressure members 33" are smaller and thus lighter than the pressure member 39 and, like the latter, are carried in a cage 45 hav- I by means of screw blocks such that the transverse members 39, 39', 39", carried by them, can co-operate with any desired inclined roller or rollers. The three pressure members are, however. also adjustable and flxable in the axial direction of the inclined rollers because the regis-.

tering guide 36 is displaceable and fixable, according to the sheet size, in the sheet feeding direction A, on an inclined rail 41. The brush wheel 39' is arranged close to .the registering guide 36 and the pressur members 39, 33 are arranged at a suitable distance therefrom.

The sheet i-, travelling from the parallel folder 30, in the direction of the arrow A, to the trans verse feeding device 35, is first subjected to the influence of the inclined or oblique drive 33, 33

out stopping and its registration is assisted and/or maintained by the last inclined drive,

38" and 39". For this purpose, the two pressure members 39" can also be so distributed that each or a plurality thereof co-operates or cooperate with an inclined roller of the transverse forwarding device 35. In this correctly registered position, the sheet i is forwarded, in the direction of the arrow B, into the cross folder 31, a rising of its registering edge on the registering guide 36 being entirely obviated even with thin quality paper. I

In the three-fold folding machine, illustrated diagrammatically in Fig. 4, there is again shown the forwarding device 3 according to Figs. 1 and 2, with the inclined drive i4. 23 in front of the parallel folder 3!! and, moreover, in front of the cross folder 3'! atransverse forwarding or transverse feeding-device 35, but having a fixed inclined roller 38, with two pressure members 351 pressing thereon, serving as the inclined drive. The inclined or oblique drive roller 3, two or more of which may be provided behind one an-- 53 in any desired manner, even on the opposite 59 consisting of an endless band guided over two intermittently rotated rollers. The directions. of rotation of all the rollers, which can be adjusted obliquely transversely to their feeding direction, are indicated by arrows.

The forwarding and registering operation of the sheet I in the parallel folder as and of the singly folded sheet l' in the cross folder 3? has already been described in connection with the apparatus shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The twice, that is to say, longitudinally and transversely, folded sheet 8" arriving, in the meantime, from the cross folder 3! at the second transverse feed device 50, is fed by the inclined or oblique drive roller 53 with the two pressure members to pressing thereon, in the registered position along the registering guide 5t through the forwarding roller 52 arranged perpendicularly to the latter and in the direction of the arrow E to the delivery device 59, on which the folded and overlapped sheets I" are collected. The remaining rollers Et5'i and the second cross holder 58 are preferably stopped.

The inclined rollers 53 and 5d, feeding the sheets in two different directions, are arranged at such a distance from one another that a sheet of smallest size to be worked will come to rest on both of them.

If the sheet I' is to receive, after the cross folder 31, a still further transverse fold by the third folder 58, then the delivery device 59 is removed from its former position and placed in front of the folder 58 as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 4. Moreover, the two pressure mem= hers 6d are removed from the inclined roller 53 which is then preferably stopped as isalso the roller 52. and, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 4, the roller 54,- which has an inclined position and a direction of rotation opposite to that of the roller 53, is loaded with these pressure members. Consequently, the twice-folded sheet i" is fed in the registered position along the registering guide 5! through the forwarding rollers 55 and 56 arranged perpendicularly to the latter and through the further inclined or oblique roller 51 into the folding mechanism 58 and the sheet I", now provided with three cross folds, is delivered in the direction of the arrow F on to the delivery device 59. The folding machine can extend behind the last folder side. 4

In the feed device 3 of the first folder 30, the front part 3a. thereof consists of a separate portion, the two parts being pivotally connected together by means of hinges 6!. If the front part' 3a is swung upwardly around the hinges 6!,

then the folding mechanism 30, with all its parts and the interior thereof, is freed and is as accessible as possible so that the folding rollers and the fold pockets of the folder 313 can be easily reached for carrying out any necessary work thereon.-

I claim: a

1. Apparatus of the type'described comprising the subcombination of: a sheet forwarding device; a sheet working machine associated with said forwarding device; a registering guide associated with said forwarding device for correctly registering a sheet being fed and means associated with said forwarding device for imparting to the rear corner of the" registerin edge of said sheet a turning movement to cause said sheet to engage said registering guide firstly with said rear corner for the purpose specified.

2. Apparatus of the type described comprising the sub-combination of: a sheet forwarding device; a sheet working machine associated with said forwarding device; a registering guide associated with said forwarding device for correctly registering a sheet being fed and means associated with saidforwardingdevice for impart ing to said sheet a turning movement to cause the whole registering edge of said sheet to engage said registering guide for the purpose specified.

3. Apparatus of the type described comprising the sub-combination of: a sheet forwarding device; a sheet working machine associated with said forwarding device; a registering guide associated with said forwarding device for correctly registering a sheet being fed and an inclined drive device-associated with said forwarding device for imparting to the rear corner of the registering edge of said sheet a turning movement to cause said sheet to engage said register ing guide firstly with said rear corner for the purpose specified.

4. Apparatus of the type described comprising the subcombination of: a sheet forwarding device; a sheet working machine associated withsaid sheet forwarding device; a registering guide associated with said forwarding device; an obliquely disposed roller feed device located be-- tween said forwarding device and said working machine, said roller device extending transversely of the direction of feed of said sheet; and pressure means on said roller feed device said feed device and pressure means being adapted, on movement of a sheet over said oblique feed roller, to impart to the rear corner of the registering edge of said sheet a turning movement to cause said sheet to engage said registering guide firstly with said rear corner for the purpose sepcified.

GEORG SPIESS. 

